New Study Focuses on What Home-Based Child Care Providers Need to Survive
The pandemic made visible the lack of available and affordable child care in the U.S., and families continue to struggle to find care for their children, whether in licensed centers or homes. Massachusetts alone has lost 1,000 home-based child care providers since 2020—directly impacting parents’ ability to work, especially mothers.
And yet, despite the dire state of the field, individuals continue to start their own child care businesses.
Senior Research Scientist Wendy Wagner Robeson, Ed.D., is collaborating with Kimberly Lucas, Ph.D., Professor of the Practice in Public Policy and Economic Justice at Northeastern University, on a study of the experiences of home-based child care providers in Massachusetts in order to better understand which government policies can help them survive and thrive.
With funding from the Massachusetts Early Childhood Funders Collaborative, Robeson and Lucas are conducting a survey and focus groups with those who have become licensed home-based child care providers since 2020 and those who have recently left the field.
